French Laundry Cornet: Results!

A week ago there was a thread started by 'Hungry Howard' about recreating Thomas Keller's famous 'cornet'. Someone asked if those of us attempting the recipe would post up our experiences.

I made the cornets as part of an 8-course Christmas dinner I hosted and I have written a report. Skip to the link at the bottom if you want to see the same report with links and pictures included.------

I made up the batter, easily, using my beautiful new Kitchen Aid . I made a great little stencil by getting out the bottom from a round Ziplock container. This was perfect because of a little ridge that made the stencil easy to lift. My first batch was a disaster. The batter was way too thick and the cornets wouldn't form well, or brown evenly. After that, I spread the batter as thinly as I could and then they worked perfectly. I quickly got in the swing of cooking up one tray after the next. Now I know how to do them, I would definitely make them again.

I substituted salmon for Ahi tuna in the recipe, as I was already serving another canape with salmon. Also, raw tuna is the only fish Fred will eat and I thought it would be nice for him to be able to join in the whimsical cornet fun. Assemble at the very last minute before serving (they soften quickly once the fillings are added). I filled a bowl with navy beans so that I could stand the cornets up easily for presentation. (Check out some other presentation tips here) I didn't crown my cornets with chives as Thomas Keller suggests because, quite frankly, I ran out of time. Despite the lack of ornamentation, however, these tasted super-delicious. I didn't quite make enough for two each and there were fights over who got seconds...

Congrats on your success! Thanks for posting the results. I'm sure I would have been one of those fighting hard for a 2nd serving if I had been there. BTW, how did the rest of your extensive meal turn out? Curious about the gravlax in particular...

Hi Carb LoverI wrote a post about the gravadlax too(in English we spell it with an extra D in the middle for some reason)If you go to my main blog page (linked below) you should scroll down a couple of posts and find the gravadlax report.there is another post a bit further down still which shows the full Christmas menu.I haven't written a post about every course yet, but plan to cover most of them over the next few weeks after I get back from my vacation (which I am heading off on very, very shortly)...Sam